Project Curacao2 – Part 5 – Final LoRa Range Results

April 28, 2017 Arduino, Grove, LoRa, Project Curacao2, SwitchDoc Products, Wireless

Project Curacao2 – Part 5 – Final LoRa Range Results

 

Project Curacao2 is a redesign and rebuild of the Project Curacao environmental monitoring system that was running down on the island nation of Curacao in 2014 and 2015.   It finally died after a loose wire in the solar panel assembly (not in the panels, but in the internal wiring) finally came completely loose.   We are now using a LoRa WXLink wireless transmitters for data collection.

Project Curacao2

 

Check out Part 4 – Initial LoRa Range Results for the details of the test setup and software for measuring LoRa range using GPS and the Raspberry Pi.

The Changes

We modified the test we used in Part 4 to include the new Yagi Antenna we purchased for this project.  We were so impressed with the cost and performance, we have contracted with the manufacturer to build a custom 433MHz Antenna for use with our LoRa transceivers and we will be selling these on the SwitchDoc Lab Store.   We strapped the Yagi Antenna on the side of one of the Solar LoRa transmitter units using bungie cords and placed the unit on top of our building for the final range test.   In Part 4, we wired in a previous Yagi antenna without the correct RF connectors and the whole thing was so fragile that we had to place it on a chair on the ground.

With this antenna wired correctly and with RF connectors, we were ready to run the tests once again to get good numbers for the Yagi.

Note:   In Curacao, we will actually put the Yagi antenna on the base unit, rather than up on the ridge.  Since the RF behavior of the transmitter and receiver are symmetric and will give the same results and gain each way, we are running the test this way as the Base unit is not running yet.

 

 

The Final Results

We strapped the Raspberry Pi GPS/LoRa test jig (in a cardboard box, no less) on to the top of a car and prepared to drive around (video below).   We put the  LoRa solar powered WXLink up on top of the roof to get more of an unobstructed range.   Note:   This test isn’t really a “free air” or “line of sight” test.  We want to get a reasonable number out of this test that we can use on the Ridge antenna down in Curacao which is not a line of site connection.

 

 

 

 

 

Test 3 – Production Yagi Antenna – Transmission Unit on Roof – Suburban Residential Area

We got good results!   1713 meter range, 3 times our minimum requirement of 600 meters.   This is straight ahead from the antenna (Yagi Antennas focus the RF energy toward where the antenna is pointing). This isn’t elevated free air range, but is still a good number for our uses.

 

=2017-04-27T01:47:04.000Z, 47.674503, -117.112697, 620.20, 0.31, 0, 0 1.713
2017-04-27T01:47:04.000Z, 47.674503, -117.112697, 620.20, 0.17, 0, 0 1.713
2017-04-27T01:47:06.000Z, 47.674503, -117.112700, 620.10, 0.22, 0, 0 1.713
2017-04-27T01:47:06.000Z, 47.674503, -117.112700, 620.10, 0.16, 0, 0 1.713
2017-04-27T01:47:08.000Z, 47.674503, -117.112700, 620.10, 0.18, 0, 0 1.713
2017-04-27T01:47:08.000Z, 47.674503, -117.112700, 620.10, 0.55, 0, 0 1.713
2017-04-27T01:47:10.000Z, 47.674450, -117.112710, 620.10, 4.35, 1, 1271 1.713
2017-04-27T01:47:10.000Z, 47.674450, -117.112710, 620.10, 1.93, 0, 0 1.713
2017-04-27T01:47:12.000Z, 47.674388, -117.112778, 619.90, 5.66, 0, 0 1.709
2017-04-27T01:47:12.000Z, 47.674388, -117.112778, 619.90, 4.41, 0, 0 1.709
2017-04-27T01:47:14.000Z, 47.674338, -117.112963, 619.80, 8.24, 0, 0 1.696
2017-04-27T01:47:14.000Z, 47.674338, -117.112963, 619.80, 8.28, 0, 0 1.696

Driving over to the side of the antenna still gave a good range of 1515 meters.

2017-04-27T01:54:18.000Z, 47.671493, -117.153550, 623.90, 0.00, 0, 0 1.498
2017-04-27T01:54:18.000Z, 47.671493, -117.153550, 623.90, 0.01, 0, 0 1.498
2017-04-27T01:54:20.000Z, 47.671493, -117.153550, 624.00, 0.00, 0, 0 1.498
2017-04-27T01:54:20.000Z, 47.671493, -117.153550, 624.00, 0.01, 0, 0 1.498
2017-04-27T01:54:22.000Z, 47.671492, -117.153555, 624.00, 0.31, 1, 1342 1.498
2017-04-27T01:54:22.000Z, 47.671492, -117.153555, 624.00, 0.03, 0, 0 1.498
2017-04-27T01:54:24.000Z, 47.671492, -117.153560, 624.00, 0.25, 0, 0 1.499
2017-04-27T01:54:24.000Z, 47.671492, -117.153560, 624.00, 0.70, 0, 0 1.499
2017-04-27T01:54:26.000Z, 47.671493, -117.153617, 624.00, 3.52, 0, 0 1.503
2017-04-27T01:54:26.000Z, 47.671493, -117.153617, 624.00, 4.48, 0, 0 1.503
2017-04-27T01:54:28.000Z, 47.671500, -117.153798, 623.60, 7.02, 1, 1343 1.515

What’s Next?

We are putting together the base unit for Project Curacao2 based on the Raspberry Pi Zero.